Our first visit of two to Snetterton this season was met with most un-Snetterton type weather as the UK basked in the hottest day of the year so far. This combined with the rubber left down by the EuroBoss racers out the same day seemed to conspire to give slower track conditions than we are used to.

Photos courtesy of Hugh Dorran hughdoran@hotmail.co.uk

Qualifying
27 cars started the qualifying session but only 24 would survive to race. Jason Newman's Peugeot 306 was first casualty, a snapped conrod and two molten lumps that used to be a piston were retrieved from the engine after the session. Jack Towler's Tommy Kaira ZZ (the 22nd marque this season to race with us) was another early casualty with collapsed front suspension. Nick Williamson's Escort Cosworth had been very quick, ending the session in 3rd place but with an engine sounding like it wasn't going much further.

Of those who had better sessions, Mal Davison's Noble M400 topped the times with Steven Taylor's giant-killing Class B Lotus Exige just 3/10ths adrift. The three super Tourers of Hawken, Challis and Hale were 4th thru 6th and still less than 2 seconds back, this despite Challis' Primera losing 6th gear and managing just 4 laps. Championship leader Simon Taylor headed Class D by a long way in 12th, with current champion Jason Holmes making a rare appearance this season to remind Class C why he is the champion. Tim Morgan-Barrett continued his good form from Anglesey with an excellent performance to put his Vauxhall VX220 Turbo in 13th while Simon Jackson headed Class E with a number of Class D cars behind.

Race
A very tidy start with all 24 cars having passed Russell before the lights went out, went the way of Davison from Challis and Taylor, but Challis fell back to 10th on lap 2 and had to fight back into contention. Taylor's Exige took the lead from Davison at the start of lap 4, suddenly raising his pace by 7 seconds from the previous laps. Davison closed back up gradually and retook the lead on lap 11, Taylor also losing a place to the hard charging Challis on the same lap. It l.ooked like a race to the finish but Challis pulled over at the Bomb Hole on the final lap having run out of fuel – up to then the gap was never more than 4/10ths. Derek Hale moved up to second place but Davison won by 13 seconds. Taylor's challenge suffered at the hands of Tim Morgan-Barrett who's VX220 turbocharger let go and sprayed the Exige's screen with oil allowing Joss Ronchetti coming through to take 3rd and the Class B win.

Further back, Bernard Hogarth (Ford Mondeo), Simon Taylor (Honda Civic), Jason Holmes (Rover Tomcat ) and Ian Craig (BMW M3) were embroiled in a close race which finally finished in the above order less than 2 seconds apart, with joker playing Holmes beating Craig to the Class C win by the narrowest of margins.

The Mark Fish Motorsport Renault Clio Cup challenge went to David Pierce who held off Matt Speakman all race long to take maximum points. Simon Jackson pulled out a massive last lap in his Vauxhall Nova to pass Jason Tarling's Renault Clio Cup on the way to his 8th Class E win of the season.

Simon Taylor continues to lead the championship with 196 points from Steven Taylor (148) and non-scoring John Hammersley (144).


Result:
Winner: Mal Davison (Noble M400), 2nd Derek Hale (Honda Accord), 3rd Joss Ronchetti (Talbot Sunbeam Lotus), 4th Steven Taylor (Lotus Exige), 5th Tony Soper (Harrier LR9), 6th Douglas Ellwood (Marcos Mantis), 7th Bernard Hogarth (Ford Mondeo), 8th Simon Taylor (Honda Civic Type R)

Class Winners: Class A Davison, Class B Steven Taylor, Class C Jason Holmes (Rover Tomcat), Class D Simon Taylor, Class E Simon Jackson (Vauxhall Nova)

Fastest lap: Davison 1:15.523 (93.04mph)

Next race: Oulton Park 18th August

With support from Mark Fish Motorsport and Alpha Composites

Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 ( www.nyssaracing.com )

There are more action photos on the Photo Gallery pages

 

Results

Click here to link to the full MST Timing results pdf of the meeting

Click here for the current championship points and standings